Can you imagine being that brave?

[cali]

I can't. She was breathtakingly courageous. And it couldn't have been about seeking personal power. It just couldn't. I just listened to a guy named Segal (sp?) on NPR He was writing a book with her about democracy and Islam. He last heard from her early this morning. He talked with her many times about the risk she was taking. She said if she was killed, it could be traced back to Musharraf.

I know I'm not making much sense here, and I know that what happened to her wasn't hard to predict, but I'm still in shock about it.

[Adelante]

1. I can't imagine it

I know I don't have that kind of courage.

[bunnies]

2. Nope. nt

[no name no slogan]

3. She was human, that's what was appealing

She was not perfect by a long shot. I have a couple Pakistani friends who both supported her back in the 1990s, and even they knew that she wasn't squeaky-clean, corruption-wise. However she was a dedicated democrat in a country that doesn't have a good track record with democracy so far, and we can't forget that.

[cali]

5. yep. I'm not trying to create a plaster saint out of her.

I've always been interested in her, and I've read a couple of biographies. She had her flaws, but that doesn't detract from her courage or her belief in democracy.

[H2O Man]

17. Exactly.

Of course she had flaws, for we are all sad and weakly human. It is foolish to even attempt to set a standard that would force us to reject imperfect people.

What is remarkable is, as you note, she was doing what she believed was best for her country -- in spite of her imperfections, and regardless of the dangers she faced.

[FrenchieCat]

4. She had that elusive personal courage that we oftentime look for in a leader

but rarely see.

I will miss her calming bravery. :cry:

[sniffa]

6. indeed

she almost died when she returned, but she luckily ducked from the sun roof then.

a dreadful day for the world i say. :(

[cali]

8. I am not the crying type

but I've wept over this today.

[sniffa]

10. i know i can be a huge asshole

but this is an f'n tragedy. and i think it's going to have far more severe consequences than boosting/bashing a US Democratic candidate. :(

[cali]

12. me too. I mean be a huge asshole

but I hate this so much and I'm just do fucking sad about it. And you're right: This is about so much more than the democratic primaries. God she went through a lot. I just can't imagine what she went through seeing her father executed.

[sniffa]

13. and her brothers

:(

[PuraVidaDreamin]

7. her courage was admirable

She probably wasn't as pure as the driven snow,
but what amazing strength and dignity.

[democrank]

9. I admired many of Bhutto`s qualities.

How refreshing that she knew the story was about something greater than herself. A far cry from the self-indulgence we see every day.

[alteredstate]

11. Kicked and recommended

As you've said, Bhutto was "breathtakingly courageous".

[Virginia Dare]

14. I know, many of us predicted this so many times..

yet, when it happened how shockingly sad it was. I'm really in despair for the state of our world right now.

[Tashca]

15. Nope...I cannot

I am in awe .......I not sure I could ever do what she has done.
You make perfect sense.

[Dudley_DUright]

16. Nice personal story about "Bennie" Bhutto during her days at Harvard

by looseheadprop at Firedoglake, and no I can't imagine being that brave.

One of my sisters attended Harvard University as an undergraduate. I helped her move into her freshman dorm in Wigglesworth Hall on Harvard Yard. Wigglesworth was divided into suites with bedrooms and bathrooms off a sitting room with a fireplace. It was an old building and the suites looked like Sherlock Holmes' apartment.

Wigglesworth was (I forget) three or four stories high and had two (I think) multi-student suites off a given stairwell. My sister's suite was on an upper floor, so as we hauled her comforter and table lamps and suitcases up the stairs we passed by the lower floor suites.

In the stairwell that first day, the very first new friend my sister made was a cute little freshman in tan corduroy jeans with her dark hair pulled into two pigtails. She looked more like a high school freshman than a college student. She was tacking up fliers for some kind of cause (might have been related to world hunger) on the bulletin boards in the stairwell.

She was pretty and outgoing and introduced herself to us at once, "Hi, I'm Bennie, Bennie Bhutto." She offered to help move the bedding in, and may have carried up the pillows. She had arrived a couple days before my sister and filled us in on the lay of the land: Where the Baskin Robbins was; how to find the bookstore; you name it, she was willing to tour guide.

more...

http://firedoglake.com/2007/12/27/bennie-bhutto/

[sandnsea]

18. that should be its own thread

Helps to fill in the background a bit more. Thanks so much for posting.

[dharmamarx]

19. Fatima Bhutto interview

Sorry to be the real asshole here, but Benazir Bhutto was not the great champion of democracy she's being made out to be. There's a very good article by her niece Fatima here: http://counterpunch.org/bhutto11142007.html and an interview with her here: http://www.thisishell.net/archives_2007.html

Fatima basically accuses her aunt of being a massively corrupt American puppet. I know Americans find the idea of a Western-educated feminist leading a Muslim country to be very romantic, but this woman was not fighting for Pakistan's poor.

[cali]

20. I'm not suggesting that Benazir Bhutto was purer than the driven

snow. There is indeed evidence that she and her husband were corrupt. But it's still possible that she was corrupt in some aspects and yet believed in democracy. I'm awared of her niece's charges, but who knows what motivated Fatima? One thing I think is clear is that Bhutto was more than an American puppet, and was indeed very courageous. What motive did she have for taking the huge risks she took? She had money and family and homes outside of Pakistan. She could have stayed safely out of the fray. She chose not to.

[dharmamarx]

21. The problem is that Bhutto was an elite

I suspect Benazir took the risk was because she wanted to rule again. Almost every leader endangers herself in one way or another (at a bare minimum even W. risks assassination) in order to get power. Many of them are idealistic when they do so; W., for instance, has probably deluded himself into thinking that he is making the world a better place.

The reason I find Fatima's criticisms accurate is that she's making a traditional complaint in those articles: Western imperial countries exercise their will on less powerful countries by wining the loyalty of the wealthy elite in those poor countries. Those elites generally have Western educations (as does Fatima herself), speak very good English, and appear very charismatic to often well-meaning Westerners. But their base of support does not come from the (normally rural) third world poor of the country they govern; it comes from the Western corporations who operate within those countries and from the Western politicians who supply those leaders with financial aide. For the third world country, this results in massive corruption and the undermining of democracy itself; if elites like Benazir say they are democratic but they don't serve the masses then the masses decide that this "democracy" thing is just code for Western imperialism. (Think of how the neo-cons' support for Ahmad Chalabi and Iraqi “democracy” has backfired.) Real Pakistani democracy won't come in the form of a glamorous émigré flying home from the West; it would look like a politician from a poor village, who didn't attend an American university, probably doesn't speak English well, and certainly doesn't get interviewed on CNN.